Gesture based controls for adjusting display areas

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide a map application with novel map exploration tools. In some embodiments, the map application executes on a mobile device (e.g., a handheld smartphone, a tablet, etc.) with a touch sensitive screen. The map application of some embodiments has a first display area to display a map of a region, and second and third display areas to display information about items displayed on the map in the first display area. In some embodiments, the second display area slides over the first display area to overlap at least a portion of the first display area. After the second display area slides over the first display area, the third display area in some embodiments slides over the first display area to overlap at least a portion of the first display area. In some embodiments, the second and third display areas slide over the first display area from one side of the first display area. This side is the bottom of the first display area in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the bottom side is expected to be closer to a position for resting the mobile device in a hand of a user than a top side of the first display area. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the second and third display areas slide up from the bottom side of the first display area so that information and/or controls that are provided in these display areas are more accessible for one handed operations (e.g., thumb-based touch operations) of the user as the user hold and interacts with the device with one hand.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.